The Home Machinist!

I am organizing my garage. I got a Harbor Freight stand for my planer. It's reasonably sturdy, but the places where the screws hold it together act as hinges. You can move it back and forth at the top by pushing, so it sways on its feet.

I am trying to think up ways to stabilize it. The screws do not have star washers on them. I was thinking that if I added some, it would allow me to tighten the screws more. Right now, they're hard to tighten, because one side is a slippery Philips head. That side turns when you tighten the other side.

Sound like a good solution, or is there a clever shop secret of which I am unaware?

Welder !!

Get some 'real' cap-screws, self locking nuts, and use flat-washers on both sides. Real bolts and nuts can be tightened like they need to be....a wrench on both sides, and the flats will increase the clamp area, (mo' friction) and keep things from being able to move around.

Bill

The holes are likely oversize so the rigidity is determined by the clamping force and not by the hole being filled with a bolt. Getting them tighter will help, but it may still slip.

Add some diagonal braces.

Steve

Diagonal bracing is the magic word.

Exactly. Just add either a triangulating brace corner to corner on at least 2 perpendicular sides and it will make a world of difference. It would be better for all 4 sides to be triangulated, but assuming no slop at the corners, the top should act as a shear plane, and 2 sides should be enough to get you where you want to be. If you can't go corner to corner to get fully triangulation (maybe due to access issues), then some decent corner gussets in the top corners will help a lot (again, assuming no-slop fitment). Just tightening up the corner bolts is only going to provide limited improvement in over all rigidity, though if it's really loose, fixing that may get you satisfied enough.

BadDog wrote:then some decent corner gussets in the top corners will help a lot

These might do the trick:



The are called corner braces and HD has them, as do most hardware stores.

Steve

I don't mind if the holes are slightly oversize, because it give you some play in order to square up the corners. However, get rid of those Philips head bolts and use hex or even round head Allen. For strength add braces and or gusset plates. Put all bolts, nuts and washers slightly loose, square her up, then tighten. I don't know what you plan to put on the table, but you may have to beef that up to. It seems that no matter what I buy now and not just HF, I have to beef it up. Mark

Thanks again for the tips.

I want to avoid a major project if possible.

I tried to get cap screws so I could tighten the nuts more, but it turns out that buying metric screws at the local Home Depot is not all that much cheaper than buying a new tool stand. I found a Philips bit that fits the screws and cranked them down better.

Next time I think I'll just buy the factory stand. Making it work for me probably would have been less work.

So....why do they have to be metric?

I fixed up my welder cart with 1/4" hardware. It came with 6mm semi-software-peanut-butter-steel(maybe) blended junk.
Sure...I had to poke a drill in here in a few places. No big deal.

They have to be metric because if you don't buy washers and screws to fit the metric nuts, you have to buy nuts. That jacks the price up, so you still lose.

It might be easier as a woodworker to cut plywood panels and screw those to 3 sides it will stiffen it up and leave room for a storage shelf. Can't claim the idea somewhere saw a HF bandsaw reinforced that way.